Dead CPU/Motherboard

My month old m14x has died on me. On startup, the screen stays black and it just beeps seven times. I've searched around and have read that this is a CPU failure, but upon contacting Dell/Alienware support they said it was a motherboard failure.

It isn't heat related as my m14x has never gone above 85C. It appears to just be bad luck. It worked fine last Tuesday (1/17), and I shut it down before going to work at 3pm. When I got home, right before going to bed I decided to fire it up and check email before I crashed and it wouldn't turn on. Using my phone, I checked for a couple of quick solutions and discovered that it was most likely a CPU or motherboard failure. My m14x is barely a month old and hasn't been pushed hard by -any- means.

Upon contacting Dell/Alienware support the next day, they decided they would send a tech out to replace the motherboard. The next afternoon however, I received a call saying that the part was backordered and would not arrive for at least another week. I received an email last night that said my part had come in and that I should be receiving a call this morning from tech support to set up an appointment for the tech to come out.

The timing actually ended up working out okay, even though I've been without my computer for a week now as I had to work two midnights, had one night off, then have to work four midnights in a row before my two days off being this upcoming Friday and Saturday, I really wasn't going to have any time available for a tech until the 27th anyway.

This is a real disappointment for me though, as I had a catastrophic failure just one month in. The unanswered questions will always remain: Is this something I'm going to have to deal with every 30 days now? How often will these failures occur? Can I trust this machine not to fail and leave me in a lurch? I have a month's worth of recording/mixing/remix work saved on it's hard drive that I haven't backed up to the hard drive yet. Obviously, that's on me for not backing up to my external drives more frequently, but I never expected a major failure this early in. Plus, the allure of lots of fast hard drive space made me want to utilize it! So now, I've got two projects on hold hoping for a quick fix from a motherboard replacement. Not a good situation at all.

So, be forewarned m14x owners... part failures can come out of the blue and can result in backorders and slower than normal replacement times. Good luck.

 

I had exactly the same thing happen to me.

I bought mine last November and it died with the same 7 bleebs a month later.

They sent out a technican the day after though and it was repaired within half an hour (so I was still abel to play on it over Christmas).

Not a great start to my alienware experience and I only took out the standard 1 year warranty.

All seems good now though.

 

Call Dell, explain the problem or just them straightaway that you got the 7 beeps on startup then they'll ask you to do some of their "procedure" then if they cant fix it, then they'll dispatch a technician to repair your laptop, that what I do when I have problem that I cant fix or there is no answer online.

As for hardware, it doesnt matter how old it is, because it can be happen at any time, that's just a nature for the electronic devices. This is why warranty exist for that reason.

 

Unfortunately only certain thing about electronic equipment is that it can fail anytime. You cannot really specify its lifespan. For example i have a friend who uses his 6 year old ipod without problem and i have another friend who had to return two ipods within same month. In nutshell, they can work for as long as 10 years without a problem but they can also fail within 10 days of purchase.

Since you have already experienced a major problem, i would advice you to go for extended warranty option. You can get it done anytime within your warranty, i suppose. I purchased two year extended warranty after 6 days of recieving my laptop. Its not that i am hoping for it to fail but my past experience has taught me to spend now and save later

and as far as your warning , i think this goes for every computer manufacturer in world.

I am in no way implying that what you are going through is nothing. obviously if you cant use your laptop for long duration because of delays on dell's behalf; its frustrating.

But this problem seems to be isolated to 2-3 users so far ( i guess )

IF anybody else have faced the same problem, please discuss it here and prove me wrong so that other members can be aware about it.
regards

Haha, apparently you posted this while i was busy typing away my reply!

 

I have this same problem with my m14x currently 2months old and still waiting on parts. My m17xr2 failed on me also and was replaced after two failed repairs. I hope this is not a repeat issue as it seem a lot of people are having it with there m14x

 

I have built and maintained computers for 30 years now. I started with a TI-99 4/A, a computer that I could fire up right now if I wanted. I am also a professional musician and recording engineer with 20 years of experience in the field. I have built and repaired my own electronic components throughout that tenure, and I can say with experience and knowledge that while you cannot specify the lifespan of a product, product failure with only one month of operation is NEVER to be taken lightly. There's no "Oops! Better luck next time!" when it comes to a product such as this. This is not an iPod. This is not a cellular phone. This is not a disposable lighter. In 30 years I have never had a computer motherboard, not even a refurbished or repaired one, fail within 30 days of normal usage... until now.

Obviously I'm going to have to get an extended warranty on this product or I'm going to have to pay out of pocket to replace major components every 30 days. Not very cost effective.

It's really not that big of a deal. I'm disappointed, but I'm not really frustrated. As I mentioned in my initial post, I'm working midnights right now and and covering hours for another co-worker and even if the part was available and shipped within 24 hours of the initial failure, I still wouldn't have been able to get a tech out for another week. And since it didn't impact any data, the only thing I'm really losing is a little time.

Um, no. Maybe only 2-3 users here, on this particular forum, but if you look around the internet about this specific error you will see many more reports of the same thing, usually within the same span of time as well. From my research, the majority of the reports of this problem have happened within one month of purchase. The solution is usually the same; motherboard replacement. From the information I've been able to gather so far, it appears that there is a fairly sizeable number of motherboard failures but they all seem to fail early. So if your m14x motherboard hasn't failed after six months to a year of ownership, there's a pretty good chance that it probably will not fail.

My post was primarily for information, because I've seen reports of this elsewhere but didn't remember reading anything about it here when I was researching my purchase. You'll notice I'm not lashing out or insulting Dell/Alienware's support, or the quality of their product. I merely explained the situation as information and as a warning for other users that if it this does happen to you, that delays from parts (in this case, the motherboard) being backordered can happen, and that major failures can happen -way- early in the ownership of your product.

I personally am not surprised that I had a motherboard fail on me, but I am surprised that it failed within 30 days of light use.

The consolation or expectation from several users that major part failure within 30 days of purchase is normal surprises me though. Do any of you spend a couple thousand dollars on a product fully expecting major failure within a month? Seriously? That's like buying a brand new car and having a transmission or engine failure within 800 miles. Could it happen? Sure! But is it to be expected? No! It's an anamoly and if it happens frequently, it's cause for a recall. Obviously at this point, Alienware wouldn't recall motherboards on the m14x, but also this is not an uncommon problem. It's something that potential or recent purchasers should be aware of, and it's definitely advised to get the longest warranty available.

 

I was pretty gutted when it happened to me.

I sold quite a few things and it took ages to save up for my m14x and then after 30 days of (light) usage it packed up on me.

What are the causes for a (new) motherboard to just die then? Hopefully seeing as my faulty one has been replaced then this will keep me going for a long time now though?

I just hope this isn't as unreliable as how my original xbox was as I went through about 5 of them due to RROD (and it took microsoft ages until they admited there was even a fault with their product).

I was gaming on it last night on it (skyrim wiith all the mods and also some BF3 ) and this little machine is a beast! ...its just a shame I had a bit of a false start with it though.

 

I have no idea what specifically has failed on my motherboard yet. The tech will be coming on Friday afternoon and hopefully we'll be able to narrow it down a little more. There was absolutely no warning or anything. It ran perfect one day and was dead just eight hours later.

I don't play any high resource games like Skyrim or BF3. The only things I had done with it that entire week was some remix work in Cubase, none of which was very resource intensive. I burned two CDs and watched a couple episodes of Spaced via Windows Media Center on my 360.

I'm right there with you on hoping that this won't be a regular thing, but I honestly have a feeling that it will be. I foresee having a major maintenance issue throughout the lifetime of this computer. Motherboards don't just randomly fail 30 days into the lifespan of a product. It'd be different if this was a refurbished or used model. So, I'll wait for the next major issue and fight until I get a bit of a deal on the extended warranty. It's pretty much all that can be done at this point.

It's funny, because right before trying to start up my laptop, not knowing it had died yet, I mentioned to a friend that I regretted buying it just because Gibson released a new Les Paul that I really wanted to pick up, and I wish I would have put the money I spent on the m14x towards that as it would be something that would appreciate in value instead of depreciate. Then I went to turn the m14x on and found it was dead. Maybe it was jealous

 

this seems common ish. here was my experience.

The tech guys explained that for some unknown reason the mother board and processor stop comunication.. for a currently unknown reason.

Can i recomend you test your system when the mainboard is replaced, check your grafics card..

.
I found that this is not a big issue, just a bit of a pain.
good luck, also mine is now sorted as your will be before long.

 

if its a pretty common problem, then it really sucks. Ofcourse dell will never accept their fault and lie to grave. Have you guys read a post made by one of their representatives here? They say that heat generated by this laptop is"normal" can you believe it? and the A08 bios fiasco.couldnt fixed SATA III issues so axed this feature. dumb guys. If i wanted a simple machine i would have gone for cheaper alternatives.

 

Is this an i7 based problem?
Reading the signatures available they all have some version of the i7 processor.

I'm considering buying another M14x because they really are fantastic little devices but are going to aim for the i5 on this occasion.

Cramming any i7 into its form factor was risky.
(Removing the CD Drive to free up space would have helped)

 

To add to my post I've got the i7 2760.

 

Dell and Alienware are jokers, particularly their outfit in slovakia where none of them take any ownership of the issues.

+1 I think this is a CPU and motherboard problem, and dell are just messing us about with motherboard swaps forever.

I have this 7 bleeps problem. tech came round, swapped the motherboard- HOLY IT MUST BE THE CPU BATMAN, the laptop does the same thing.

I've got next business day support - what a con that is. Next business day - when i reported the fault there was no part for the 3G motherboard, they said they'd do me a 1.5G and replace it when the 3G comes into stock. HOLY WE DON'T HAVE ANY STOCK OF THAT EITHER BATMAN. Then see above. THey now expect me to take ANOTHER day off for them to come round and not fix it again. HOLY IT ISN"T ACTUALLY NEXT BUSINESS DAY BATMAN ITS 2 WEEKS AFTER THAT. Complete joke. This is my fourth alienware machine and most likely my last.

 

mine is i7 also.

 

I assumed as much.
The cruel subtlety of it - ("7" Beeps) for the i"7" Processor.

The M14x i7 model I previously owned was tested to ensure overheating was not an issue and as a result I had zero problems and a happy buyer.
However I treat my machines with the utmost care and are very experienced with laptops and their functionality.

Are the users whom are subjected to this problem leaving the i7 Turbo Boost feature on permanently?

 

to add insult to injury - they are out of motherboards again. i am thinking that the one they brought today was to palm me off and they knew it was fault.

 

Out of motherboards? .

This kind of sucks. Mine's headed in for what will presumably be its 2nd replacement, although the first time was for the GPU and I'm pretty sure this time is as well. Mine's an I7 as well, and running A05 BIOS.

I'd gladly take an equivalent M17x replacement, or pay for an upgrade to an equivalent M17x or M18x if the wife hadn't been laid off yesterday.

 

It could be an issue with the i7 boards, but I don't think it's necessarily because of it being the i7 CPU itself.

My laptop is up and running now. The tech came out today, replaced the motherboard, and upon starting it up it gave 5 beeps, then 2 beeps. He replaced the RAM and it's running fine.

I still don't know what specifically failed on my motherboard to cause the problem, but I do know the following:

1. It was not a failed CPU. My original CPU was put into this new motherboard and is working just fine.

2. It was not a heat issue. I haven't had to deal with high temps at all. Right now, I'm rendering audio from Cubase while posting this and I'm running at around 40C with a max of 43C. I've never had this machine above 85C, and that was without my laptop cooler. With the laptop cooler I haven't gone above 79C and usually max out around 72C.

3. It was not just a RAM issue. The tech (who was a really nice, knowledgeable, cool dude) checked that first before anything else.

The tech had never worked on an m14x before but has worked on several m11xs. He said they don't get too many calls out for Alienware around where I live. He said he's been seeing this issue reported online and has had to replace a couple m11x motherboards before, but they were never able to narrow down why they were failing. When I mentioned that I had read it might be a GPU problem he related a couple similar GPU failure story with Nvidia GPUs and how many motherboard and GPU replacements he's had to do because of failure. So it -could- have been that... who knows.

As far as Dell/Alienware being "out" of motherboards, that's not exactly true. They are backordered though, and of course the priority would go to new machines, not warranty repairs. Mine took about a week, and it's definitely a new motherboard and not a refurbished one. That or it's an immaculate refurb. I made sure to go over everything with a fine tooth comb while he was working on it.

 

well mine just died... i don't know if i can handle this but getting this kind of mobo issue at such an early stage (less than 2 months of usage and not even kicking it really hard). i got mine to sleep mode after working with MS Exel... turned the lid up.. and boom... 7 beeps... nothing on the screen...

 

The reality of the situation is this:

All you can do is have Dell/Alienware come out and replace the motherboard.

You can't get a refund, you can't guarantee that it'll never happen again after it's fixed, you can't ever trust your machine and you'll be holding your breath every single time you power it up, and you have absolutely no control over the situation.

You're under warranty, they'll take care of it. You might be without it for a couple of days, and yeah you'll have to deal with calling someone from another country to get them to come out, but they will take care of it. Just let them read their little script and confirm what you already know is the problem.

I'd suggest doing what I'm doing, and buying the extended warranty as soon as you can. We might have to do this every month for all we know.

I'm pretty convinced it's an Nvidia thing and not really Alienware's fault, and hopefully the m14xr2 supposedly having a choice of video cards and one of the options being an ATI will keep this from happening.

I'm not sure if this link is allowed. If it's not, mods please feel free to edit away: Why Nvidia's chips are defective - The Inquirer It's an old matter, and doesn't directly correllate to the current chips, but leopards don't change their spots. Considering the number of GPU and motherboard problems I've read about, I just don't think it's a coincidence.

 

Update:

Exactly 8 days after having my motherboard replaced, it failed again. Exactly the same circumstances. Was running fine all day, turned it off before leaving for work, came back home 8 hours later and turned it on to have it beep at me 7 times.

I called today and reamed them out on the phone about it. There -will- be a resolution to this issue. This machine lasted just long enough for them to make sure I could not get a refund. I told them that anything more than 48 hours of downtime would not be acceptable. They wanted me to send them my machine back for them to work on. I asked them why on Earth I would do that? So I could wait two months for my machine to get back here, and 8 days later have it fail again? I didn't pay $1300 to rent a machine for one week out of every month.

Due to my demands for a quick turnaround, I'm having them send yet another tech out, with every single replacement part this time, not just a motherboard. They will bring a new CPU, new wireless card, and new RAM. They will repaste the CPU and GPU. And if I have to call back again, there will be an m17x sent to me to replace this one or they will extend my warranty at no cost for me.

This is getting really old. Apparently I just can't turn my computer off, for fear it will never turn back on again. I expect a lot more from this company and for the amount of money I paid. And as silly as it sounds, I chewed into them about how this is not just an issue for me, but for dozens (if not hundreds that I'm unaware of!) of people who have the exact same problem.

More updates as they come. 30 days for the first motherboard, 8 for the second. I expect around 36 hours of usage on the third before it fails at this rate.

 

dell have finally got motherboards! this whole situation is a joke.

 

the whole "dead laptops" thing is disgraceful and incompetent... I don't know why my new Alienware M14x died (less than two months) and my Dell Vostro 1500 didn't (lived for 5 years)...

 

Update: New motherboard, CPU and RAM installed today, 2/9/12. Let's see how long this one lasts. I'm not going to shut my machine off until next week, after I'm off of vacation. I'm not going through a week of vacation without being able to finally wrap up this mixing project.

Wonder what the odds of this machine having a dead motherboard the instant I shut it down and turn it back on next week... I'd say about 3 to 1.

 

+1 new mb and cpu and then the new mb has the new nvidia chip so i couldn't get any drivers to install! finally sorted.

 

Update:

I brought my m14x home, powered it up and my keyboard AlienFX lights wouldn't light up. After snooping around, I followed a few solutions online that involved the software end of things, and that ended up being a dead end. I had to replace the keyboard on this before, so I remembered that it had two ribbons to connect, and that the second one could easily have come disconnected, and that could be the one that handles the LED controls. Took everything apart, and sure enough, it was disconnected. Plugged it in, and everything looked good.

Fired up SWTOR and played for a little bit, but everything was super choppy. I checked to make sure it was running on the GT555M (it was), checked my framerate (@12fps) and decided to open up the OpenHardwareMonitor just to check on the heat of the CPU and GPU, when I saw the CPU pushing 95C and the GPU not far behind in the 80s. I took my headphones off and realized that I wasn't hearing the fan running. I shut down, restarted, and still... no fan noise. So, I took the back off AGAIN, and peering between the slots I could see the multi-pin connector that connects the fan to the motherboard was not connected either.

So, either the tech forgot to connect both of these, or they have randomly come off. I wouldn't doubt that the keyboard ribbon could come off, but the fan power? That wouldn't just pull off.

Pull -everything- apart, all the way down to the motherboard, connect the fan, make sure every single thing is in the proper place, put it all back together...

Black screen. Five beeps.

So I tear -everything- down AGAIN. Put it all back together AGAIN. Five beeps. Open the back again, take out the RAM, put it back in (maybe it wasn't seated right?). It starts up like it's going to go into the black screen five beep mode, and I shut it back down. But, I was overzealous and it powered back up again... and -that- time, it booted into Windows.

I put the back on, and here I am. I'm afraid that if I shut it down, it'll never start up again. I just put in for my vacation, and I have to wrap up a mix project while I'm off work. I can't afford to be without this machine for one more day. I've already backed up everything to the external drives, but I do not want to dust off my old desktop and try and mix the album, when everything is already set up and ready to go on the m14x.

So, I'm going to leave it running for the next ten days, without shutting it down. We'll see what happens, stay tuned!

 

i will be updating this thread, too, as far as Mobo/cpu problems are concerned... will try to see how their "tech" guy replaces the whole mobo... whether he's gonna place a new thermal compound on the cpu and gpu or whatever..

 

Yeah, definitely pay attention to them. The first time they replaced my motherboard they didn't paste the CPU or GPU, or put new replacement pads on either. He just took the CPU off of the motherboard and put it on the new one.

8 days later, when that one failed, I made a comment to tech support on the phone that he didn't paste the GPU or the CPU at all. So this time, they sent him paste and he did it. Although I'm sure the pasting had nothing to do with why it failed. Crap motherboards with bad video cards that should be recalled are the reason these are failing.

 

Recently tested an i5 and things are running flawlessly.
No BSOD's, no cracked hinges (Yes, they exist even in this line)
I sympathise with your situation Rubbercrow.
When they work, the M14x's are a technological marvel.
When they don't... new profanities can be created...

 

And yet another update, this time with a quick fix.

I've been working on several projects and still have not turned my m14x off... until today. I knew that if I turned it off, it would give me the 7 beeps of doom and I was correct. I did not want to turn my computer off today, but I had to move it to get behind the desk for a few things, unplugged it and re-plugged it in out in the kitchen, came back out a few minutes later to find it shut itself down. Perhaps closing the lid while on battery power shut it down or put it to sleep, and that's what did it. Tried to turn it on and got 7 beeps.

Now, the last time I was able to get my computer to turn on even after the 7 beeps. I was turning it on and off again quickly, hoping that maybe it would just ignore whatever problem these pieces of crap have and would just boot up. Miraculously, it did. And I hadn't shut it down since.

So I pulled off the back cover, yanked the battery connection out, took the RAM out and tried powering up the machine, just to kinda "re-stack the deck" and see if the BIOS/POST test would react. 7 beeps. Put the RAM back in, 7 beeps. Tried turning it on and off quickly a couple of times, 7 beeps. But I found I could leave the back cover off and pull the battery connector out and cause it to shut off quicker (with the AC power not plugged in, of course). Power up, not booting, yank the battery. Replace the battery, power up, not booting, yank the battery. On the third or fourth try, it booted up.

Now obviously this isn't an ideal situation, nor is it a recommended fix for the situation. But if your m14x died like mine and you needed to get into it and backup files or something, this -might- work for you too. I'm typing this post from my m14x right now.

My question for Dell is: If 7 beeps is a failed CPU or motherboard, then how in the hell is my computer operating right now? And if it's not a failed CPU or motherboard, then what is causing this problem? This remains to be seen. But I thought I'd pass along this piece of information.

 

This might be noob advice , but I think its just better if you get a new M14X.
Computers usually tend to do stuff like that , but reading through your experiences , you have it pretty bad

Sorry if I am out of my place.

 

Refurbished M17x R4.

First day after receiving the comp, put it to sleep on battery. When trying to turn it back on, got 7 beeps. Removed battery and AC power, put both back in, rebooted fine.

Second day, same thing happened again.

I don't know if it's really related to sleep on battery, or just a coincidence. When I tried to put it to sleep as a test, it didn't crash.

i7-3820QM, AMD Radeon 7970M.

I really like Alienware, but this is my second laptop, and both have hardware issues. I don't know what to say. The worst thing, I don't even know what causes these problems - from reading this forum, even a GPU/mobo replacement doesn't always fix it.